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Surely Arsenal have alternative targets after losing out on Lemar? Mahrez perhaps?

While Arsene Wenger gave Arsenal fans the bad news this week about the possible transfer to north London of Monaco’s Thomas Lemar, declaring that the French club had ‘shut the door’ on Arsenal and would not be selling Lemar after already seeing a number of last season’s French Ligue 1 title winners leave. But at least Wenger revealed that the Gunners did actually want Lemar.

So Wenger’s comments about being happy with the current Arsenal squad are not strictly true, otherwise he would not have been trying to sign the young Frenchman. And do we really believe that Lemar is the only player that our manager thinks would improve his options.

I have two words for you Arsene, Riyad Mahrez. The Leicester City and Alegrian international star would certainly offer us something extra with his goals and creativity and we know he wants to move from his current club and would not even cost a king’s ransom.

He is not the only good attacking player around by any means, either, but there are also the issues of midfield and defence for Wenger to consider and I think even the most positive minded Gooners would agree that a top class addition would be welcome almost anywhere.

Lemar would have been nice but if it is not happening then which alternatives do you think Arsenal should turn to?

would be great news, wanted gibbs gone since him an theo arrived a decade ago
stole a living

if we sell ox …it will top off a window of failure
people have short memorys , agree with wenger completely in him having all the attributes
and the team being built around him
plz dont sell ox, in his best position hes a monster.

It’s funny how a lot of people want Ox gone.He’d give any defender a tough time.With proper coaching and advice the guy will destroy teams.I fear Conte can do that and won’t mess around with him.It’s very difficult when players like Ox play against you.I don’t want to see him beating pur players for fun and putting in good crosses against our team.This move will be suicidal to us if everything goes well like it’s supposed to be but if things don’t go well for him we won’t regret.

It seems to me Arsenal and some of the fans have lost the plot in this transfer window.In the first place,before the transfer window opened the positions which needed addressing were LB,CF,CM/DM and after that we could hope for a luxury signing(Lemar,Draxler etc.)
LB and CF have been sorted out so fine.We needed a CM because we anticipated the sale of one our CM’s or DM’s and Cazorla was alo injured.Now we have Ramsey,Wilshere and Xhaka who are all available for the CM role so fine.We only have Elneny and Coquelin at DM which is also fine.The player we lack is a player who is a combination of both attack and defense like Renato Sanches,Leon Goretzka etc.Now that Gabriel is gone we need someone who can replace him because I considered him.as a first teamer.This means our main transfer targerts are supposed to be DM/CM and CB.
Wenger has lost the plot chasing Lemar,Mahrez etc. who are all supposed to be the luxury signings of the window.This shows he always signs what we want not what we need and yet fans were so happy with this Lemar bandwagon.You sign what you need first before what you want and not the other way round but here at Arsenal the vice versa is the norm of the day.

I must say i appreciate the information you have provided so far but your itk is becoming irritating. What is it we some fans have lost the plot with transfer window. since when the fans are responsible for which player comes in or goes out.

You’re not getting my point are you??I said that because fans were raving about Lemar forgetting that his signing puts into question wthether the areas that actually needed strengthening were gping to be strengthened.Fans were rejoicing about Lemar like he’s what we needed.He was always a luxury target.The areas that currently need strengthening is CB and possibly DM yet all we here is Lemar Lemar Lemar.

I disagree dude.
While seeing Monreal play central CB has been painful we must remember that our def kept 50% clean sheet after formation change and that is a good consistency IMO.

In CB we have Kos, Per, Mustafi, Holding and Chambers.

If Wenger had picked a CB for the middle of the CB line then I doubt we would have conceded as many as we did, this IMO was a tactical error.

CM I can agree, I would like to see someone we can get behind and trust… I rate Carvalho and think he and Xhaka could form a monster CM, neither may be a Cazorla at getting forward but Vieira wasn’t seen as a graceful swan when going forward, his gangly legs…

I actually trust our CB, I just don’t trust Wenger to pick the right ones when his 1st choices are out.

I also disagree on the CB part.Even people who aren’t Arsenal fans can still look at our options and how we play and know we need a new CB.It’s not about the numbers.We need one more reliable CB.Watch people slate Wenger when it becomes a problem but those same people said we are stacked there.We need a reliable CB.One that is very good and very reliable.We lack leaders in our defense.We’re always here and there.It wouldn’t shock me or even you if we go into the season and we’re getting exposed there.It looks likely that it’s going to happen.

The Carvalho-Xhaka partnership is also just wrong.That’ll just be giving one of them roles they aren’t suited to.I think one of Carvalho or Xhaka should rather be playing and not both though we can use them in certain matches.I’d take Carvalho over Xhaka anyday of the week but just that it’s now too late.Viera was also a box to box player and not a DMF as many people believe so even though he wasn’t so graceful he was pretty good at attacking.

@ Midkemma ..its just the way some of us labels fans not fans moaners etc…we are all fans and we all care about Afc either we wouldnt be wasting our time with all of this..so its Kevs opinion but it doesnt mean we all agree with him.
As for you mentioning changing formation and clean sheets etc..I think its not what you should consider..it was end of the season and we have lost everything we could till then so it changing to 3 at d back was just desperate move of the desperate old man…
.and I think that 3 at d back just brought mess in our defence.
Also its painfull seein Monreal wherever he plays!

@Kev as for loosin transfer plot…well Its obvious that Lemar was planed to replace Alexis..thats why we were after him.
Ok Alexis did not left…yet..I mean its always better first to buy player and then sell so can get price you want for player you selling.
Also I dont know whats going on with Alexis at the moment but what if he leaves next week and we will have to do panic buying..again!

I understand the point you are making and also think you are wrong regarding Lemar. I don’t know what informed Wenger decision to go after him but what i know is Wenger gives preference more to the attack than defence. Maybe his plan his to ship out some players in attack if he had got Lemar. Aside Alexis, Ozil and maybe Xhaka and Iwobi who are the creative players we have. I think our problem at back is not number and the quality of the players we have but how Wenger set his team up to player. How often do we our defenders and DM neglecting their defensive duties and full backs not combing back to help the defenders when we are under attack. If get Van dyke and Calvalho has you suggested we will concede stupid goals just because of the the team plays.

this team has a bit of everything:
Goals, skills, speed, Intelligence, steel and hard work. it just need the right instructions and support to flourish.
beside that the bench/ 2nd team will not be bad either and we are secured for rotation.

@Kev also agreed that we needed Lb cf and that we sorted them out.
Same with cm dm and cb but not because we sold Gabriel (considering Gabriel as starter?? dude Never!) Am so glad hes gone!
We need cb like vvd!
And we should stop with this 3 at the back formation and get back to old one…we wil be just fine and even better.
———–Cech ——-
Bellerin—Vvd—- Kos— Kola
(Caz or Ramsey or Xaka or Elneny or Wheelchair)
————Ozil——-
Ox/Mahrez ——Alexis/Lemar
——-Lacazz/Giroud——

Wenger is acting very slow as always, blaming other people or clubs for his short comings. There are exelent players available on the market, Wenger wants a cut price or a player who is not not available. Just buy Mahrez and Van Dyke and let go these fringe players you kept on the team roster. It is not fair nor helpful for the player or the team to keep these players just fill qouta. Sell the likes of: Theo, Ramsey, Xhake, Wilshire and Chech. The main thing here is acting fast decisevely. We had enough of listening your empty promises about players who are not available.

We will sign one more player, at least, the quality is what we don’t know. I just hope for the best.
Europa League is our best chance of UCL next season, in my opinion. If Arsene gets it right in Europa, we can win a trophy and qualify for Europe’s first tier competition at the same time, even if we don’t really do well domestically.
Getting the needed players is key, motivating them rightly is a master key. I just hope Arsene disappoints me positively this season.

The painful thing is a lot of people will be cheering here when Wenger makes a typical Wenger signing where he gets what we want not what we need.If the last minute signing is a luxury buy then it’s just de ja vu all over again but if it’s coming to address a need then we are good to go.I’m just praying it’s not an attacker.

I’d like to apologize about the Lemar deal but I have to clear up somethings.Arsenal had two bids rejected for Lemar then accepted to pay Monaco’s final £55 asking price including add ons.Everything looked to be set even media were reporting it.There was even a period where it looked like it was immiment as Monaco signed his backup Diakhaby,a deal which I broke way before it happened.I don’t even watch Diakhaby or ever known him.Monaco then changed asking price to £65.They must have probably looked at the current market or didn’t want to sell.Arsenal tried to make them loosen their stance but it proved futile.Thank Wenger for willing to break our transfer record for a player who we didn’t really need.

I’m not predicting what doesn’t happen.The most two deals I’ve been on from the start of the window was Sancho and Lemar.
The Lemar £55 asking price was met like I said but Monaco changed their asking orice to £65, a fee which Wenger didn’t want to pay.I even had his replacement Diakhaby correct way before it happened.People were wondering who Diakhaby was.The Lemar deal looked set to be completed until asking price of £55 which was initially met was changed to £65 putting Arsenal off.BTW I’m not Resource.
People think Sancho is on his way to Spurs but he had a verbal agreement to join Arsenal way way back.He’s expected to sign for Arsenal but if he doesn’t it’s a hijack.I’ve had it confirmed by next week he will be an Arsenal player.The problem is with Man City allowing him to go.

Honestly I knew people would be fed up with me if the Lemar deal didn’t happen.But the truth of the matter which is Arsenal agreeing to pay the initial £55 add ons included asking price before it was changed to £65 should’t be discounted.It’s now left with Sancho who’s Arsenal bound unless there’s a hijack which would be funny considering the fact that Sancho absolutely loves Arsenal.

Do you even read what you.write !!! You are saying its confirmed that he will be an Araenal player next week then immediately say problem is whether Man City will let him go ! So how is it confirmed ???
Same as your Lemar and other re-hash of rumour mills… we wait for the next OFFICIAL announcement from Arsenal and then a post from you saying its what you said all along !!

What I’m trying to say is that he should be an Arsenal player by next week.The reason why he’s still a City player is because they don’t want to release him.He wants to avoid his new team paying a compensation.Next week it is expected that he’ll be allowed to leave and since he’s Arsenal bound he’ll join.The only way he’ll not join is if we allow him to be hijacked which Spurs can do.All media reports are saying he’s going to Spurs.The truth of the matter is they are trying to hijack a player who agreed the Arsenal move way back.Please don’t confuse with me Resource.I’m not the #LACALEMAR guy.I was vindicated after Arsenal agreed the £55 price only for Monaco to demand £65 scuppering the move.I don’t base my things on assumptions.

If Thomas Lemar, signs to Manchester United then Arsene Wenger should be ashamed of himself as it is becoming clear even the young French players do not want to play for him . As well the best Arsenal players want are refusing to extend their contracts and want to move on eg.Sanchez , Ozil and Chamberlain.. etc. The man has tarnished Arsenal images and making it look like small club that has no hope to win Championships.

I really dont think arsenal will sign anybody else. He already said squad is too big. Im my humble opinion, it has too many average players that could easily be culled. But modern transfers do seem to be an issue at arsenal. (Debuchy been free to leave for 2 seasons, we still paying him 2.2m a year). I think we need 2 players. Proper old fashioned center half who likes to go and win headers. And a tough defencsive minded cm. Vvd and nzonzi. But im only dreaming!

Why can’t AFC tell the world we want VVD and Lemar, tell them their truly world class, make them want to join us…and pay what it takes? So we may pay over the top but top 4 is worth 50m and 1st in the PL another big boost for the coffers, so even for the economic junkies at AFC it’s logical.

This… we wanted him but the club decided not sell…we could of but…is so lame. It’s driving me nuts. There is, difficult as it seems to fathom, a lot more to a tribal game like football than making money. Arrrghhghg.

We are behind Man U, Man C and Chelsea in ability to spend. (Chelsea owe a billion to Abramovich.)

We are legitimately #4.

So, this team should end some about 4th with the current spending patterns, unless Wenger pulls of another Ozil or Sanchez at the last minute. There is not sense in getting good player, the need is for top quality, but those players want to be at Man U, Real, Barca, and now PSG.

But, they are at Wembley. They have to pay for a stadium. They have to pay for their stars soon… But with their English talents and the windfall from the Bale sale they might beat us, but this improved Arsenal team should hold them, and they will not be able to dominate the big three like last season.

I admire their domestic players but do not know the set-up down at the local to tell if they can keep discovering great English players… something Wenger has not been able to do with the structure at Arsenal.

If Man City want to buy our players for whatever money yoy say we should not sell to them yet if we go for a player we must expect them to sell to is ? Its that rationale that drives the fans to turn agianst each other
PSG bought Neymar for a stupid some from Barca who did not want to sell…prior to that people were reporting that deals were to be finalised … however any team worth its salt would wait to see who Barca spent their money on first.. If Coutinho went then maybe Lemar would go to Liverpool for a large sum for example.. so lets all calm down and wait until the window is over and then we can rant and rave if we dont think Arsenal have done well..

Just look around the footballing landscape, do you see a team even remotely as unsettled as Arsenal? Besides several teams who have questions surrounding one or possibly two players, there is no squad that has so many issues heading into the final week of the transfer window…even Monaco, who have lost numerous players from their starting 11 have less controversy swirling in and around their club and they have champion’s league play to contend with this season…just think of how ridiculous this situation is especially considering that we have had the same manager for over 20 years…no team should be better organized than ours…if nothing else, that should be the one advantage this team holds over all others, yet the exact opposite has occurred…this fact is even more disturbing considering the main argument against removing Wenger from his managerial position was that there was no suitable replacement and that people feared some sort of perceived drop-off if a new manager was brought into the mix…based on what we’ve witnessed since the time of his contract renewal a monkey with a magic eight ball could have done an adequate job…I hate to make jokes, in light of our current dilemma, but this team is so screwed up if I don’t laugh about it, the only plausible response is to either cry or do something incredibly destructive…just look around this squad and try to see what our delusional manager sees that allow him to make such positive statements about our current team

from a goalkeeping perspective we have an aging starter whose skills have depreciated greatly over the last two seasons, a back-up that’s clearly unimpressed with his role here and a third stringer who is relatively unknown, but the way they have utilized him suggests that his future prospects are questionable at best: not to mention we got rid of our most talented, albeit somewhat flawed, keeper to Juve in the off-season

as for our defenders, we have one proven CB in Kos and even he was extremely problematic last season due to his injury and poor decision-making…Mustafi, who I like because he’s the only CB we have that shows any aggressiveness in the offensive zone, was quite poor at the end of last year and there is some talk that he might be moved elsewhere…we got rid of Gabriel, who was largely a basket-case and poorly coached-up during his stay…we have Chambers, who looked fairly good on his loan spell, but Wenger has never showed any confidence in him except for on the day he overpaid for him; frankly, I can’t believe Wenger never tried to play him as a CDM considering his propensity to try players at various different positions…we have Holding, which considering his benching at Stoke suggests that the coaching staff believe he might have regressed a bit, who many see has having a potential upside if not now in the foreseeable future; really it’s hard to evaluate him because most have overvalued him due to his low transfer fee…finally, we have Monreal, and although I really like his positive energy, he is nothing more than a bench player with some positional flexibility…as you may have noticed I haven’t included Per because the very fact that he still dons an official jersey is a direct statement of this team’s lack of intent to compete for anything of any consequence

In the midfield,(including RWB & LWB) we have a whole bunch of tweeners…none offer the full package, none make sense in our manager’s current favourite formation, except for Sead on the left and Ox on the right, and all of them have never shown any consistency for more than a heartbeat…Sead, who I’m including in this category because of our present formation, looks like a positive addition, minus his occasional brain farts, but I would rather see what he could do in a back 4 before making my mind up…Ox, who has never played better, which isn’t saying much considering his largely underwhelming play in previous seasons, seems to have found a home in this new formation; unfortunately, can we really expect this oft-injured player to handle the taxing duties that come with said position over the long haul, not to mention, it looks like he has no intention of staying…Ramsey has relied on the empathy that stems from his gruesome injury years ago and the excitement that was generated a few years back when he finally seemed to put in altogether, but on the whole he has been a big disappointment(neither he nor the Ox have scored enough to warrant a regular spot)…Wiltshire should be put on a weekly contract then played until he suffers his first injury, if and when that occurs he should be shipped-out and no one should very be allowed to say his name on club grounds ever again…Elnehy & Coq are average players who couldn’t make any of the top 7 teams currently in the EPL…both have showed some great energy on the pitch, but neither are top quality and no good team can afford to have that many average players on their bench playing the same position, especially with Coq’s injury history/discipline concerns and Elheny’s headless chicken tendencies…as for Xhaka, his tenure here so far has been incredibly underwhelming…we know he has some skills to provide the long ball but his defensive work is piss poor and he gives the ball away too cheaply and far too often…finally, the enigma himself, Ozil, so much skill with his left foot but his presence has been more frustrating than uplifting…in many respects his failure has been directly related to the failure of this club to provide him with the necessary players up front, minus Sanchez of course, and unless something drastic happens very soon his legacy will be largely a negative one(much like Wenger’s)

Up front we have a few world-class players surrounded by some serious pretenders…Sanchez is by far the most accomplished player in our attack but the controversy surrounding his contractual mishandling could see him go before the window closes or most definitely by season’s end…obviously a mistake by both parties involved, as Sanchez’s exploits have never been more on display than in North London, but the club’s irresponsible wage structure and lack of real intent have been the real undoing in this mess…Lacazette, who I think has some world-class skills as a front man, will only be as good as the players and system around him, which is troubling due to our current roster and Wenger’s love of sideways passing…Walcott should have been sold years ago, enough said, and Welbeck should never have been brought in from the get-go…both of these players have suffered numerous injuries over their respective careers and neither are good enough to overcome such difficulties: not to mention, they both are below average first-touch players, which should be the baseline test for any player coming to a Wenger-led Arsenal team…Perez should have been played wide left or never purchased at all; what a huge waste of time and money, which is ridiculous considering our penny pinching ways and the fact that fans had been clamoring for a real striker for years…finally Giroud, the fact that he stills wears the jersey is a direct indictment of this club’s failure to get things right…this isn’t necessarily an attack on Giroud because I think he has some highly valued skills, but not for a team that has struggled to take their sideways soccer to the next level, as his presence slows their game even more, combined with our average, at best, finishing skills…far too often those in charge have either settled or chosen half-measures and ultimately it is us that suffer because no matter what happens Wenger, Gazidis and Kroenke will always make more money whereas we will always be the ones paying for their mistakes…so every time someone suggests we should just shut-up and support the team just think of all the sacrifices you’ve made along the way and simply reply…f*** off

If Oxlaide Chamberlain wants to go then sell him to Chelsea in my opinion , if he goes to Liverpool he will develop into a true beast as was his potential. At Chelsea , he will step his game up being in said full of winners but he will end up surplus to requirements within the year . Let Ox go to Chelsea and ask for Willian in return . We would get rid of an injury prone inconsistent player with one that is deadly from free kicks as well being a proper goal threat and a provider of goals .

I hope with the impending sales of Oxelaide Chamberlain, Gibbs , Perez and Debuchy , Arsenal go all out to sign Virgil van Dyk and Serge Aurier . We would then have a rock solid defence that strong characters who won’t be bullied into submission. Steven Nzonzi and Kovacic9from Real Madrid should be targets to strengthen our midfield. But alas this is Arsenal Football Club, our philosophy is to dither on transfer dealings hoping to strike a bargain and to be miraculously oblivious that 90% of the sqaud are weak minded injury prone players with no ambition to win titles . We will happily pay exorbitant wages to keep these subjects standard players on the payroll instead of replacing them with the calibre of player that will win us titles

Despite what every Arsenal fan can plainly see without a football manager degree is that our sqaud is weak , our manager will persist in adding more weak players to the sqaud hence my hopelessness. We all want a strong powerful commanding centre back as well as a central midfielder to compliment that but we will probably end up Fielding our youngsters or purchasing someone that was never heard of before . Arsenal WON’T SIGN VIRGIL VAN DYK OR ANY PLAYER OF QAULITY as we have a transfer team of incompetent fools

Name one player beside Sanchez and Kos in our squad who are strong characters ??? Ozil disappears in the big games ,Coquelin is a headless chicken , Oxelaide Chamberlain Welbeck are brainless fools with mad pace yet no end product in the box, Walcott and Ramsey scores the odd goal or two but more often than not give the ball away . None of these players will step up when the chips are down and galvanise the team to victory.